Features of settlement and integration of migrants in Moscow and the Moscow Region

Abstract

International studies prove the relationship between migrants settlement patterns and their integration. Russian researchers have studied integration for many years but not migrants settlement patterns. The authors aim at filling this gap and describing different aspects of migrants settlement in Moscow and the Moscow Region as affecting integration. The article presents a classification of migrants settlement patterns on four grounds: tenure, type of building, social circles and ways to get to work. Each type is illustrated by examples of settlement patterns and other details to provide lively descriptions of migrants everyday life. The study consisted of 65 interviews with migrants in Moscow and the Moscow Region which were based on the principles of the grounded theory. In the study, migrants were people born in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, both Russian and foreign citizens. The data show that, despite stereotypes, there is a great variety of migrants settlement patterns, for instance, in terms of tenure there are those who have their own apartments and those who rent a bed at the workplace, while in terms of social circles, there are those who live with members of their nuclear family and those who share apartments with new acquaintances from different countries. The article presents some considerations on the relationship between certain migrants settlement patterns and their integration, for instance, on the positive effect of property ownership on the structural and identity integration and on the relationship between using the employers transportation and social aspects of integration.